February 2015

Big Data and Privacy: 1 Year Out

We're releasing an interim progress report detailing the progress we have made in our review of big data and privacy. The big data and privacy report offered as one of its six chief recommendations that the government seek to ensure that data collected on students in school is used only for educational purposes, and that students be protected against their data being shared or used inappropriately. The big data and privacy working group report identified six priority policy recommendations and a host of smaller initiatives to further the conversation about big data and privacy inside and outside of the government. Big data will continue to contribute to and shape our society, and the Obama Administration will continue working to ensure that government and civil society strive to harness the power of these technologies while protecting privacy and preventing harmful outcomes.

Obama Administration pushes for legislation on student data privacy

The White House began pushing for legislation to protect the online privacy of students, allowing them to do schoolwork while keeping the door closed to marketing and sales. Aides believe the initiative is an area where President Barack Obama can find bipartisan cooperation, and the Administration is working on the measure with lawmakers in both parties. The Administration plans to release draft legislation in February proposing a broader privacy rights standard and also is calling for a single national standard to protect consumers from data breaches.

Hiring a Chief Data Scientist, White House Points to Big Data Progress

The Obama Administration has lured another top digital technologist away from Silicon Valley and to the White House, this time to help the government harness big data. DJ Patil, formerly of Salesforce subsidiary RelateIQ and LinkedIn, has joined the White House to serve as its “chief data scientist in residence", to help the government harness big data. “One of the things that he's going to be doing is looking at the way big data science can improve services across the board, starting particularly in the health care world,” John Podesta, Counselor to President Barack Obama, said. Patil will work alongside federal Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, a former Google executive who’s been in the top tech job since August.

Senate Judiciary Committee approves bill to boost disclosure of government docs

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the Freedom of Information Improvement Act, a bill meant to expand public disclosure of government documents and update the Freedom of Information Act. The bill requires agencies to adopt a policy that presumes disclosure and would ban denials of records based on technicalities, among other changes.

"The FOIA Improvement Act of 2015 reflects the input of both sides of the aisle, the open government community, the Administration, and many other stakeholders," Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-CT) said after the vote. "It is the product of careful negotiations, and it marks an historic step forward in our continued effort to open the government. The Senate should take up and pass this bill so it can be considered by the House and enacted this year.”

Verizon Confirms Plan to Sell Certain Wireline Assets, Cell Towers

Verizon confirmed plans to sell a package of wireline assets and cellphone towers in separate deals that will net the telecommunications giant more than $15 billion. Verizon said it would sell its local wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas to regional telecommunications company Frontier Communications for about $10 billion, concentrating its wireline assets on the East Coast where it intends to focus on further penetrating the market for its FiOS business. The wireline sale would pare back Verizon’s role selling telephone and Internet service to residential customers and businesses. The company is the largest US wireless operator by subscribers and sees that market as the key to its future. Selling local telephone service also is highly regulated. Verizon will also lease and sell a set of wireless towers to American Tower Corp. for $5 billion and will use some of the proceeds to buy back $5 billion in stock.

Verizon Wireless feeling heat of competition, cuts data prices

Verizon might be feeling the heat of competition, as it announced some new, cheaper pricing options. Verizon's 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6GB shared data plans are all dropping $10 a month to $30, $40, $50, $60, and $70 per month, respectively. The company's 8GB shared data plan is dropping $5 a month, from $90 to $85. Verizon's also offering a 500MB plan for $20 a month. Verizon says these are promotional rates, so the discounts could disappear, but the company did not say when.

President Obama Picks VMware’s Tony Scott to be Federal CIO

President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint Tony Scott to to be the Federal Chief Information Officer and Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government, Office of Management and Budget. Tony Scott leads the global information technology group at VMware Inc., a position he has held since 2013. Prior to joining VMware, Scott served as Chief Information Officer at Microsoft from 2008 to 2013. Previously, he was the CIO at The Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2008. From 1999 to 2005, Scott served as the Chief Technology Officer of Information Systems & Services at General Motors Corporation. Scott received a B.A. from the University of San Francisco and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

National Association of Broadcasters to FCC: Give Us Some Space

The National Association of Broadcasters has told the Federal Communications Commission it has gone too far in trying to free up more white spaces between TV channels for unlicensed use. The FCC has made that one of the goals of the incentive auction and station repacking, but NAB says that unlicensed operation in the white spaces is sluggish, and the FCC should be in no rush to populate the TV band with unlicensed operators. While the broadcast group said there were some things to like in the FCC proposal, several others would "significantly increase the potential for interference to Digital Television operations, especially after the incentive auction when broadcasters are packed together more tightly."

Coming to Your Facebook Feed: More Political Videos

Political campaign advertising in the form of Facebook and YouTube videos began to take hold in the 2014 congressional races. But candidates are still struggling to use them effectively.

For much of the campaign, the political ads encountered online were 15- and 30-second clips that appeared before the videos that users actually wanted to watch on YouTube and other sites. Although there are other forms of digital advertising, including those that appear on search results, these so-called pre-roll videos are an attractive method for campaigns because they are similar to television advertising and because campaigns know how to produce that form. In future campaigns, the ads on social media platforms like Facebook won’t be the stuff you have to watch (for a few seconds, at least) in order to see what you really want. They’ll be in the feed, labeled ads, with a precious few seconds to grab your attention. But in that environment, politicians will need to change their approach to cut through the clutter of other videos and postings vying for attention on those pages.

The guy standing between Facebook and its next privacy disaster

Shamed by past mistakes and weary of angry regulators, Facebook has transformed the way it makes new products and privacy controls, making all of the information we pour into the site on a daily basis far less likely to be used against us.

The face of the new, privacy-conscious Facebook is Yul Kwon, a Yale Law grad who heads the team responsible for ensuring that every new product, feature, proposed study and code change gets scrutinized for privacy problems. His job is to try to make sure that Facebook’s 9,199 employees and the people they partner with don’t set off any privacy dynamite. Facebook employees refer to his group as the XFN team, which stands for “cross-functional,” because its job is to ensure that anyone at Facebook who might spot a problem with a new app — from the PR team to the lawyers to the security guys — has a chance to raise their concerns before that app gets on your phone. “We refer to ourselves as the privacy sherpas,” says Kwon.

Benton

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